Dear Sammy - 5 years old

Dear Sammy

My handsome, charming, cheeky, boisterous firstborn has turned five!

You're one year short of entering elementary school, so that means Mummy has only one more year of cherishing you in your kindergarten days before you go to a different school from your brother. It's been lovely picking up both of you from the same kindergarten.

Both your little brothers look up to you and while you're all sweet with Liam, offering him the sweetest smiles, you're pretty tough with Gabriel because he certainly knows how to push your buttons!

But to us, you continue to remain our baby and we doubt that would change through the years!

This year, for the first time, we decided to hold your birthday outdoors because there was simply no way we could house rambunctious 5-year olds in our apartment. It was also the first time that we celebrated your birthday 2 days in advance (which is a huge taboo in Germany), but that was the only time we could celebrate your birthday because we would have left for Italy for our holiday one week later (more about that later).

It was such a huge success! The sun was shining, the grass was green and everything was a picture of perfection on the day of your birthday party.

We decided to do an outdoor BBQ with simple decorations of just balloons and DIY pirate party pickers. Grandma and Grandpa even came along too! There were about 10 children in total but within the confines of a huge garden with playground, it was so relaxing!

We started off with some skewered barbecued meat and sausages followed by free play while the adults ate. Mummy prepared a game of "poison ball", where a person would stand in the middle of a circle and the other children would attempt to throw a ball to hit the legs of the person in the middle. As soon as the legs were hit, the person in the middle would be replaced by the person who threw the ball.

It was all nice and fun until some of you decided to throw the ball at the faces of the children, such that Mummy had to decide to draw the game to a close!

Instead of a birthday cake, we baked you chocolate cream cheese cupcakes and used your birthday train as candles. It was such a mess-free, fuss-free birthday! Each of you helped yourself to a cupcake without any cutting or distributing of the cake. 

We ended off with a treasure hunt where all of you had to search for your treasure, which also happens to be your goodie bag. Your present from us was a scooter! You love it and have been using it almost everyday!

You had such a fantastic time that you told us at the end of the day that it was the "best birthday you've ever had!" I certainly hope you'll continue to have the best-est birthday parties every year!

Our beautiful firstborn, please know that we love you very much. We're so proud of the boy you've become. You've embraced the whole "older brother" role with gusto and have such a protective instinct over your brothers.

We're sorry for playing the "you're the oldest" card on you whenever we want peace in the house and want you to give in to your younger siblings. Your heart continues to be so tender inspite of all our parenting mistakes. We thank God for you and pray that God will continue to mold you to be a man after his own heart.

We pray that you will seek after God's love and not after man's praises and acceptance. We pray that while doing that you will also fight for yourself and not be easily bullied or taken for granted. We pray that you will have Godly wisdom and courage, lots of faith and hope, and a lot more joy in life in doing the things you do for yourself and others. We pray that your acts will be sincere and that there will be true joy when you choose to bless others in your little ways. We pray that God will also show you His compassion and shower you with His daily blessings and mercies. - prayer copied with permission from a fellow Mom.

Love,
Mummy & Daddy

Our simple balloon decoration overlooking a huge garden

We brought the table cloth and used the birthday train

View of our little birthday hut

Kids had so much fun on this double swing

Sam and his signature "growl" pose

Love this shot with my Mom-in-law

We brought a picnic mat for the baby

Hub did an awesome job with the BBQ

Kids tucking into the barbequed food

MIL brought meatballs and we made some DIY pirate party pickers

Our friend brought a vegetable platter with dip

Time for ball games - Poison ball!

It got rough!

Gabriel having a go at the ball

I tried to help!

Second game when Sam had to catch the others. For those he caught, he had to hold hands with them to catch the others

A rare shot with our Gabe

Our birthday cupcakes with our DIY party pickers

All the kids

They had to blow the candles which wasn't easy because it was in front of the cupcakes!

Opening the presents!

This boy loves lego!

Ending off with some ice-cream time!

And party sparklers